Racing Through Troubles
by Soursugar88
Summary: After a practically bad day of racing, Turbo snaps at Piston. Simple enough.


_Author's note: hello people._

_Hi._

_Well, I give you a story, I guess. Be nice._

It was a normal Saturday in TurboTime. The three racers started up their cars and drove to the starting line. Turbo, Throttle, and Piston have been plugged in for, what, six years now. The three treated each other as brothers. Well, Turbo liked Throttle to an extent, but there were times where he really despised Piston. How he could stand to be so HAPPY all the time really got on Turbo's nerves. He refused to acknowledge Piston's comments, hoping that he will leave him alone. Well, on this particular Saturday, TurboTime was played by a bunch of inexperienced players, and that irritated Turbo to no end. After the first kid of the day played TurboTime, and placing third, Turbo sulked away from the platform, when Piston caught up to him, and, in the chipper way he always talks, said "It's okay Turbo, I bet that you'll win on the next quarter!"

But Turbo didn't win on the next quarter. Or the next one. Or the next one after that. In fact, he placed third in every race that day. When the arcade closed, Throttle, wanting to rest a little, headed to the house the three share, tucked away behind the left bleachers. Turbo really didn't see the point in resting, tomorrow was Sunday, the one day of the week that the arcade is closed all day. Turbo was thinking about all this, when Piston interrupted his train of thought with a friendly "Want to race?" Turbo, never one to back out of a race, grudgingly agreed. The remaining two racers drove their karts to the starting line, and they were off! Turbo had the lead, when suddenly he was slowed down by an oil slick! Piston zipped past him, and Turbo was angered when he saw that Piston was not going as fast as he could have gone! He was letting Turbo win! Turbo was infuriated. He rammed the back of Piston's kart. Hard. Piston went veering off the track, but the push also slowed Turbo down. Within seconds, Piston was back on the track. The two racers were neck-in-neck as the finish line came into view, when Turbo was slowed down by another oil slick! Piston zipped past the finish line, with Turbo a couple of seconds behind.

As Piston stepped up on the platform and accepted the trophy, Turbo was staring at him with envy and hatred. Piston saw that, thinking that Turbo was angry about not winning, and stepped down from the platform, leaving the trophy on the lowest platform. As Turbo was walking to the house, Piston ran up to him and started talking, oblivious to what Turbo was feeling towards him at the moment. "Hey Turbo, that was a good race, huh? I know you are mad about not winning, but nobody can win all the time. I slowed down to let you win after today, but I guess you didn't want me to. It hurt when you rammed me. I wasn't expecting that. Hey, why did we stop walking?" that last statement of Piston's was due to the fact that Turbo had stopped walking and was now standing with his back to Piston.

"Go away." Turbo growled.

"What?"

"I said go away! I mean, really, Piston, can't you find out that I don't want you around!"

"W-What do you mean?" Piston asked, not sure that he wanted an answer, his ever-present smile fading.

"I mean that you are an annoying nuisance! Why do you keep following me around when I hardly utter a word to you? Really, I can hardly believe you and me were made by the same programmers! In fact, I would be overjoyed if you just locked yourself in your room and I never see or hear you except during the day, so our game doesn't get unplugged!"

Piston was biting his lip for the entire time Turbo was talking, trying not to cry in front of him. He turned away and ran towards the house. Turbo watched him go, then decided one more lap around the track would be nice, as he trudged back to the track. As he was driving around the track, he kept thinking about Piston and the way he looked at him before running off. "_Why can't I get him out of my head! He deserved it!" _Turbo thought to himself. After his lap, he walked into the house, to see Throttle sitting at the table. He looked concerned. "And just what happened to you?" Turbo asked Throttle. "Well, it was the strangest thing! Piston burst through the door, then just started wailing! I tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't stop! He wouldn't even tell me what's wrong! Really, in the six years that we've been plugged in, I've never seen him this upset!"

Turbo felt a pang of guilt at Throttle's last sentence, but decided to trudge upstairs anyways. Then he heard faint crying in Piston's room. Turbo threw open the door and saw a vaguely Piston-shaped mound in the middle of the bed, covered in blankets. After confirming that Piston was facing downward, Turbo reached under the covers and brought out a sniffling Piston by the collar, who was biting down on his lip in a futile effort to stop crying. "Listen, you!" Turbo began, also noticing Piston clamped his hands on his ears, in an attempt to block out Turbo's words. "Only a boneheaded _nimrod _would be crying over something as stupid as what I said! So stop it!" with that, he threw Piston on the bed rather roughly, leaving his room. Throttle was in the hall, having overheard Turbo. "Turbo?! What was that for?"

Throttle asked Turbo. He didn't have an answer, only walking angrily to his own room and crawled in bed, preferring to sleep in his clothes. He could hear Throttle trying to comfort Piston, but to no avail. He felt the guilt overwhelming him, and tried to shake it off, and finally drifted off to an uncomfortable sleep.

When Turbo woke up in the middle of the night, his thoughts strayed over to Piston. When Turbo yelled at him that second time, he couldn't help but notice how absolutely _miserable _Piston looked. Sure, he had cried, when the guys at _Tapper _were a bit too rough, and when Throttle dragged Turbo to help him comfort Piston, but never this much! Turbo decided to check on him, after all, he was asleep, and if he wasn't, he could just convince Piston that it was a dream. He crept to Piston's room, and slowly turned the knob. Thankfully, Piston was asleep. Turbo crept closer, and saw that he was crying in his sleep, and was coiled up in a ball, trembling. Turbo stood over the sleeping Piston. "I'm sorry," he whispered to his coworker- no, his _brother's _sleeping form. "I-I didn't mean to make you cry like this. I just…" Turbo trailed off. He wasn't sure what exactly he wanted to do. He reached down and wrapped his arms around Piston's waist, sort of hugging him, so half of Piston was dangling off the bed. It was at that moment that Piston decided to wake up. "Hmm… what?" the half-awake Piston muttered, alerting Turbo to the fact that he was up. Piston immediately came to the conclusion that Throttle was trying to comfort him, as he had been doing for awhile. "Throttle… leavemealone." The last words were slurred together, and, Turbo decided to let Piston know that it wasn't Throttle in the room with him. "I'm not Throttle." Turbo spoke those words so nonchalantly that he surprised himself. Piston tensed, his other half finally sliding off the bed and landing with a thump on the ground. "T-Turbo, what are you _doing?"_ Piston asked, surprised. With a start, he realized that he was still hugging Piston. Awkwardly, he let go. "Why are you here, Turbo? I thought you hated me." Piston's comment made Turbo wince a little. Turbo answered honestly, instead of creeping away and pretending it never happened. "I don't hate you Piston, it's just, I was frustrated after today, and I just took it out on the nearest possible thing, which happened to be you. But I need to know one thing: why did it upset you so much?" Piston gulped down another lump and answered Turbo, his voice quavering. "Well, I thought of you as a brother, Turbo. I loved you, and for the last six years, I thought that you returned the feeling. But I found out that you only think of me as 'the third racer' and nothing more!" Piston was crying before he finished his statement, absentmindedly burying his face in Turbo's shoulder. Turbo thought about how to cheer Piston up, then he hit it. "Piston," Turbo began, "If I thought of you as only 'the third racer', then I wouldn't be here right now, would I?" Piston sniffled. "Well, I suppose that's true…" he said. " besides," Turbo continued, "Brothers have their fights, you should know that. And for the record, you're a really good racer too. When I rammed your car, I was surprised on how quickly you were able to shake it off."

Piston beamed at that, happy that Turbo didn't think of him as 'the third racer' anymore. "Oh, that reminds me."Turbo said. He got up and left the room, only to return a minute later carrying Piston's trophy, which he had accidentally left on the lowest platform outside.

"You forgot this."

-THE END-

_Author's note: well, thanks for reading this thing. I want to admit something I was a little nervous to say in the summary or first AN:_

_This is my first fanfiction._

_Probably guessed it, but I would like it if you review!_


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